8/15/14

Did not get to see the depot in Kutaisi--the manager wasn't there. I did see the historical museum, which while quite modest, still had some nice artifacts including a small icon that apparently contained a piece of a dress Mary wore while pregnant and a giant icon that was in some saint's vision.

The train ride to Tbilisi was generally pleasant, except for when people kept trying to shut the windows. At Rioni station where we connected with the main train, people started shutting the windows without explanation. Some random passenger came to ask me to close mine, saying something about a "conditioner" (presumably AC). I obliged, less because I thought the still stifling car had air conditioning than to just play nicely. Of course, it would have been more intelligent to shut the windows after we were sure it was working, but for some reason people failed to comprehend this. Obviously, it quickly became extremely toasty, and after so long I couldn't put up with other people's idiocy causing me to percolate in my own sweat (I had already tried to open my window again, only to be told no by some dude who looked like he was in the mafia) so I went to try to explain to the  conductor. I began explaining, and when I gestured to the obviously not working (the car didn't even have electricity) AC, one of the other guys helpfully explained (through the english-speaking lady who was interpreting) that if it was, it would knock me over. That was really helpful, and eventually I wound up standing across from the bathroom next to the one still open window while everyone presumably died of heat exhaustion because they were too stupid to realize that the AC was not working nor would it and that opening a window would provide some relief. It's really frustrating when you command of a language is insufficient to explain to people that they're needlessly slow-roasting an entire train car because it somehow hasn't dawned on them as temperatures easily notch 95 degrees that there is no way in hell, i.e. the train car, that the AC is working. Luckily for me, they finally saw the light and reopened the rest of the windows and I could return to my seat. Of course, they were shut again an hour from Tbilisi but at that point I could bear it out.

The journey itself is quite nice, passing through some beautiful mountain scenery and along a river through a gorge. The train needed some helpers, which was quite surprising. Other than nearly getting toasted alive, it was a nice ride, and only cost 8 lari. 

River gorge

Tbilisi was nice; I finally tried some tasty if messy Khinkali at a restaurant on Freedom Square--I forget the name, I think it was "Georgian Cuisine". The next day I went to Gori in the morning on the Marshrutka, which left Didube bus station at 10:45. These are fairly frequent. I visited the Stalin Museum and while I resent everything he did, it was interesting. As our guide put it, it was a museum in a museum--the first layer is the Soviets' museum to Stalin, and then the second layer of museum is the modern effort to preserve how the Soviets presented Stalin, with all their propaganda and historical revisionism. He did have a nice train carriage. It wasn't an awesome museum; the tour was fairly basic and it only took 45 minutes, but it is worth seeing if only to reflect on what a terrible person he was. The one redeeming anecdote, if you could even call it that, related to the capturing of his son by the Germans--he (Stalin) refused a prisoner's exchange with Von Paulus because he said he wouldn't be able to answer to all the other fathers whose sons wouldn't be ransomed. His son died in captivity.

Eerie

Not exactly proletarian in decor

I took a taxi from Gori back to the bus station in Tbilisi. It cost m 30 lari, though the cab driver wanted to charge 50. He could speak some english, and after I categorically rejected 50 lari he asked what I thought the fair price is, so I said 30. He started at 40, and went down to 35. Since I was being cheap, I told him that marshrutkas were so much cheaper that I'd rather take them and started walking away. At this point, he conceded the full offer and I went for 30. So I finally got a reasonably good deal by being stubborn and acting decisive with what I wanted to do, even though I myself wasn't fully sure how I was going to make the Marshrutka back, had I chosen that.

After that, I went to the Museum of the Soviet Occupation. Though it only takes up one large room, it's fairly well done with some basic english explanations. However, it is definitely worth it to pay for the guided tour. We got a tour guide who had actually participated in a bunch of the revolts she spoke about, and though she was like all the other guides in talking too fast and not leaving time for questions, she was very interesting. She also hated the communists. It turns out the Georgians have a long history of rebelling against the Russians, with revolts in the 20s, 50s, 70s, and late 80s. Of course, it's not heard of as much because it's not mainland Europe like Berlin, Budapest, and Prague were but it's interesting nonetheless to hear that such large revolts happened even in the Soviet republics.

Freight car filled with Georgian prisoners that was riddled with machine gun fire (presumably in the October Revolution or a subsequent pre-WWII revolt)

For dinner, myself and a few friends went to the restaurant at the top of the funicular, which was good if a bit expensive. The view is obviously excellent and there are some paths nearby, one of which leads to a nice secluded spot on the backside with views to the outskirts and the mountains. That  was nice as well.

Overview

TV tower